With a background in the computer industry comprising 15 years in senior management/director positions across the UK, Geoff has spent the past 12 years in Small Business Consultancy, delivering advice, support and training to the SME and Third Sector marketplace. Developing considerable experience in this sector, he has delivered a number of significant projects around Merseyside.
 

These include:

1. Social Enterprise Enabler with Merseyside Social Enterprise Initiative (MSEI) funded through ESF, delivering start-up and sustainability funding
programmes for social entrepreneurs and sustainable social enterprises

2. Start-Up adviser with Weston Spirit Youth Charity assisting pre-start enterprises with early support and planning - programme deliverer to Merseyside Expanding Horizons Social Inclusion programme

3. More recently, delivering enterprise workshops to the School of Social Entrepreneurs, Liverpool, and to Social Enterprise Network (SEN) funded projects.

This spread of project work demonstrates a practical, hands-on style, a desire to learn, and a willingness to get involved at grass-roots level. Having worked on two EU transnational projects, Geoff was subsequently invited to visit Eastern Turkey as an independent consultant, to deliver training in Entrepreneurship and Business Planning to Kurdish women. This was a reflection of his strong people skills and an ability to design and deliver programmes for the most hard-to-reach communities.

Other successful projects include supporting a Local Authority social services programme facilitating creation of an independent Social Firm to manage client day care services, and delivering a host of social enterprise workshops around the region. Another current intervention is an employability skills programme for the long-term unemployed, a subject which Geoff feels strongly about, having participated in for over three years with a local Wirral College. International experience in China, Europe and USA, demonstrates a strong commercial, social and economic insight into diverse communities. This background, coupled with appearances on BBC2TV Working Lunch and Dragon’s Den programmes provides for a vivid anecdotal message for a variety of audiences.

Now back in his native North Wales, Geoff is looking to use his knowledge and experience within the local communities, his particular passion being in supporting the socially excluded in finding meaningful work opportunities.